Ahead of one-sided parking Saturday, St. Paul clarifies rules

St. Paul officials on Friday announced the city’s new one-side parking restrictions starting this weekend, and noted a couple of exceptions for residential streets where the rule may not be clear.

Mayor Chris Coleman said that until further notice, parking in residential areas will be restricted to the odd-numbered side of the street.

Starting Saturday, vehicles found parked on the even-numbered side of residential streets will be issued warning tickets. Starting Monday morning, such cars could be ticketed and towed.

St. Paul officials decided to take this step to ensure that emergency vehicles can get down streets that have been narrowed by heavy snows this winter. Minneapolis took similar action earlier this week.

In St. Paul, parking will continue to be allowed on both sides of nonresidential streets unless signs say otherwise.

And there are a couple of exceptions to the rule in residential areas. Streets where parking is already limited to one side will maintain the posted policy, even if it permits vehicles to be parked on the even-numbered side.

On streets where the odd- or even-numbered side isn’t clear because of lack of houses, parking will be banned on the east side of north-south streets and on the south side of east-west streets.